China's state media has released a news article about illegal mapping efforts as a threat to national security. The article also mentions news which had been announced before, that any foreigner collecting geographical data without permission will be "severely punished".

This seems to outlaw the entire OSM project and any participation or contribution. Presumably the government wouldn't go to the hassle of pursuing lawbreakers who have contributed data so far. However, the law may be actively enforced in Xinjiang, Tibet and near sensitive facilities.[2] "Most of the violations publicized so far have involved [research] in Xinjiang. Working in Tibet, meanwhile, has become almost impossible"[1]

中国行政区划/Administrative divisions of China

The administrative division is quite strict in China and the importance and size of a place is almost entirely determined by its administrative level. The general OSM classification (with just city, town, village), however, is not really sufficient to reflect these levels. In order to reflect the Chinese administrative division better a separate tag is used to denote this: china_class=*. The classification for places, in addition to and not replacing the standard OSM tagging, (with hopefully self-explanatory names) is:

地级行政区/Prefecture level

17 Prefecture (地区; dìqū)— These were formerly the dominant second-level division, which is why this administrative level is often called "prefecture-level". However, they were replaced for the most part by prefecture-level cities from 1983 to the 1990s. Today, prefectures exist mostly in Xinjiang and Tibet Use place=city

30 Autonomous Prefectures (自治州; zīzhìzhōu)— Are prefectures with one or more designated ethnic minorities. These are mostly to be found in China's western regions. Use place=city

283 Prefecture-level Cities (地级市; dìjíshì)— It form the vast majority of prefecture-level divisions. Prefecture-level cities are generally composed of an urban center and surrounding rural areas much larger than the urban core, and thus are not "cities" but municipal in the strict sense of the term. Use place=city

3 Leagues (盟; méng)— are effectively the same as prefectures, but they are to be found only in Inner Mongolia. Like prefectures, leagues have mostly been replaced with prefecture-level cities. The unique name is a holdover from earlier forms of administration in Mongolia. Use place=city

县级行政区/County level

1,464 Counties (县; xiàn)— are the most common county-level subjects. Counties have continuously existed since the Warring States Period, much earlier than any other level of government in China. In Sinology literature, xian are often translated as "districts" or "prefectures". Use place=town|

117 Autonomous Counties (自治县; zìzhìxiàn)— are counties with one or more designated ethnic minorities. These are analogous to autonomous regions (at the province-level) and autonomous prefectures (at the prefecture-level). Use place=town|

374 County-level cities (县级市; xiànjíshì)— are, like prefecture-level cities, not "cities" in the traditional sense of the word, since they are actually large administrative regions that cover both urban and rural areas. It was popular for counties to become county-level cities in the 1990s, though this has since been halted.

852 Districts (市辖区; shìxiáqū)— another type of county-level division. These were formerly the subdivisions of urban areas, consisting of built-up areas only. In recent years, however, many counties have been converted into districts, so that today districts are often just like counties, with towns, villages, and farmland. Use place=suburb

49 Banners (旗; qí)— which are the same as counties except in name. The name is a holdover from earlier forms of administration in Mongolia. Use place=town|

3 Autonomous Banners (自治旗; zìzhìqí)— which are the same autonomous counties except in name. The name is a holdover from earlier forms of administration in Mongolia. + place=town|

1 Forestry Areas (林区; línqū)— a special county-level subject forestry district currently there is only one forestry area (Shennongjia) located in Hubei province.

2 Special Districts (特区; tèqū)— another special county-level subject exclusively located in Guizhou province.

11 District Public Offices (区公所; qūgōngsuǒ)— are a vestigial level of government. These once represented an extra level of government between the county- and township-levels. Today there are very few of these remaining and they are gradually being phased out.

Road Types

Road classification refers to relative importance in a region, not to the construction quality of the road or number of lanes (except in the case of expressways). Big city standards should not be applied in rural areas.

Use highway=motorway for G class expressways (高速公路) with white on green traffic signs, whose number contains 2 or 4 digits, i.e. routes of China National Expressway Network (中国国家高速公路网). See the list here. Most expressways are toll roads, use the tag toll=yes for this.

Use highway=trunk for all other G class highways, also those superceded by expressways. See the list here.

S routes - Shengdao (省道), or provincial highways.

Use highway=motorway for S class expressways (高速公路) with white on green traffic signs, whose number contains 2 or 4 digits.

Use highway=primary for important S class normal access highways connecting major regional cities/towns or provide them access to other major G or S class highways.

Use highway=unclassified for C class ways. Switch to highway=residential in portions where the traffic flow is expected to be heavily affected by pepole entering/leaving residential/commercial/industrial buildings along the road.

Other unnumbered highways/roads usable by motor vehicles:

Use highway=motorway for highways named Expressway (高速公路 or 高速) with white on green traffic signs.

In case that a road is supposed to be primary or secondary, but with even poorer condition than minor roads in the same area, use highway=tertiary.

For feeder roads around city blocks (小区) that collect most of the local traffic and act as the "bones" of local road network, use highway=tertiary.

For public roads inside a community (typically in the width of 1 or 2 lanes and in most cases no dedicated bicycle lane) with little through traffic, use highway=residential.

For other public roads, use highway=unclassified. Switch to highway=residential in portions where the traffic flow is expected to be heavily affected by people entering/leaving residential buildings along the road.

Portions of G and S routes inside cities/towns should normally follow their respective tag usage. For X, Y and C routes that has become de facto city roads as defined above, just treat them as city roads.

inside a gated area (factories, gated communities, gated school/university campuses, ...), or simply with controllable barriers (gates, lift gates, etc., but not customs checkpoints or toll gates) at all of its exits, or

directly connected to the entrances of a line of building(s) and often with only one lane, which is supposed to merely provide access to these entrances, or

almost serve no purpose other than provide access to a building or a gated area.

Use highway=unclassified for other minor roads, such as those connecting small villages to a classified road. Switch to highway=residential in portions where the traffic flow is expected to be heavily affected by people entering/leaving residential/commercial/industrial buildings along the road. If the road is unpaved, add surface=unpaved or other applicable surface tags.

Use highway=track for roads used almost exclusively for forestry, agriculture etc.

For dual-carriage motor vehicle only highways/roads with at least 2 lanes in each direction, which are similar to expressways, but with a small number of level intersections and white on blue traffic signs (may be informally referred to as 'quasi-expressways' or 'semi-expressways'), add motorroad=yes.

Roads/paths not supposed to be used by motor vehicles

Use highway=footway for designated footpaths; i.e., mainly/exclusively for pedestrians.

Use highway=cycleway for designated cycleways; i.e., mainly/exclusively for bicycles.

Use highway=path for other non-specific ways unsuitable for motor vehicles.

Bike lanes

If the bike lane is part of the road, just separated by a lane marking, add cycleway=lane.

If the bike lane is separated from the road by an unmoveable barrier, such as a garden section or other non-passable obstruction, the preferred way is to map it as a separate highway=cycleway that runs alongside the road. However, adding cycleway=track to the road is acceptable if the actual location of the bike lane cannot be determined.

Addresses

Not all addresses will be easy to fit in the OSM standard tags, below is a suggested way. If in doubt, use addr:full. For detailed reference see the addr key page.

Examples

Urban address with street name
甘肃省兰州市七里河区光华街33号，邮编：730050

addr:country

CN

addr:province

甘肃省

addr:city

兰州市

addr:district

七里河区

addr:street

光华街

addr:housenumber

33

addr:postcode

730050

Rural address, no street name
甘肃省兰州市七里河区阿干镇高林沟210号，邮编：730050

addr:country

CN

addr:province

甘肃省

addr:city

兰州市

addr:district

七里河区

addr:subdistrict

阿干镇

addr:place

高林沟

addr:housenumber

210

addr:postcode

730050

Generics in Chinese

When one of the following is present in a name, it is customary to translate them when using name:en, instead of just using Pinyin without accents, e.g. 天安门广场 becomes Tiananmen Square, not Tiananmenguangchang. In case English literature uses a different transliteration, this should prevail.

Places

Street types

注：以下内容带有地方观点，仅供参考，应以官方名称或路牌为准。Note: the following is for reference only, if available, the official name should be used

Fortification semantics

营 (ying) : military camp, some fortresses are called ying but it's a very common village name.

堡 (bao) : fort/fortress, mostly fortified but further from the Great Wall, the size reduces and some are just villages.

城 (cheng) : city/fortress: most likely that you can find a fortress with this name; also 土成 (tucheng# earthen fort), 城子 (chengzi, inside the fort), 古城/故城 (gucheng, old fort), 老城 (laocheng, also old fort), 旧城 (jiucheng, former fort), 城关 (chengguan, the fortified district of a city)

Also, villages along the Great Wall tend to have these words as part of their names:
边 (bian) : frontier
墙 (qiang) : wall

The following are often part of place names, but usually not literally translated (e.g. 石家庄 becomes Shijiazhuang, not Stone Family Village)

峡 (Xiá) : gorge

沟 (Gōu) : ditch/gully

湾 (Wān): river bend

营 (Yíng) : camp, barracks

家 (Jiā) : family, home

庄(Zhuāng): village

山 (Shān): mountain, peak

Possible Sources

AsiaGPS

MapWorld Imagery

MapWorld Imagery at zoom levels 16-18 may be used as a reference or confirmation for Bing Aerial/Mapbox Satellite (so do not trace directly from MapWorld!). This is a state-run service and the only service in China where Web Mercator Projection is provided.

Or in iD, click "customizing backgroud" and enter the same excluding the prefix tms[18]. That will cause empty tiles beyond the level 18, which is not convenient to do some precise edition, and that is why JOSM or other editor can restrict the zoom level is recommended.

Sentinel-2

Sentinel-2 satellite data is licenced suitably to be used as background for tracing or any other purpose for OSM (licence). Best resolution available is 10 m, but all of China is covered, and imagery is very recent (several captures per month, as recent as last week).